Winning writing and art contests seems to come easy for Augusta’s Savanna Nichols. The 10 year-old daughter of Larry and Beckie Nichols and Ewalt Elementary fourth grader, appears to take success in stride.

Her latest accomplishment is being named the first place winner in the fourth grade division of the Kansas Foudation for Agriculture in the Classroom (KFAC) and the Kansas State University College of Agriculture Postcard Art Contest.

KFAC and the College of Agriculture recently invited eight elementary students representing grades kindergarten through sixth to the Postcard Art and Teacher of the Year celebration on March 12th in Topeka. Assistant Kansas Secretary of Agriculture, Jim Reimann, and Associate Dean for Academic Programs for the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University, Don Boggs, recognized the students. The students also had a photo opportunity with Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.

Savanna was awarded a certificat and received $50 and a framed copy of her artwork.

“We had wonderful artwork again this year,” said Cathy Musick, KFAC executive director. “The students understood the theme clearly. We hope this fun contest will garner future agriculture advocates by showing them the impact agriculture has on their daily lives.”

More than 1,300 students from across the state entered this year’s contest by designing a postcard around the theme “Kansas Farmers Help Feed the World.” Artwork was judged on relevance to the theme, creativity, originality, use of color, use of space, and clarity of idea and image.

Savanna was the first place winner in her division last year in the Postcard Art Contest, with her design of “Seasons of Agriculture in Kansas.”

In addition to her art talents, Savanna has won contests with her writing, as well.

In 2010 when she was just a first grader, she took third place in the Young Writers and Illustrators Contest through KPTS /Wichita. She wrote and illustrated “Ham and Cheese,” a book about an adventure of a a hamster named Ham and a mouse called Cheese.

She received gifts and a pizza party for her class.

And in December of last year, she was a repeat winner of the same KPTS contest by taking third place for her book “Hercules and the Time Machine,” a tale about a chiuaua and its amazing time machine dog house with lots of her own colorful illustrations.

In addition to the prizes and party, she also enjoyed a trip to the KPTS studio to be recorded reading her story, which was used for a commercial aired on the Public Broadcasting Studio.

Savanna shared what she enjoys doing in her spare time, “I like to randomly draw and doodle. I read a lot and I enjoy math at school.”

Page 2 of 2 - At home she keeps company with one dog, one lizard, two water frogs, and one betta fish, and two new Madagascar hissing cockroaches.